Education Provocations - what does it mean to be literate and numerate in contemporary society?

Professor John Williamson, Dean of the Faculty of Education, warmly invites educators, teachers and parents/carers to an interactive public symposium. Join our 'provocateurs' as they attempt to unsettle a number of common assumptions about literacy and numeracy. Each provocateur will share key findings from their research and engage the audience in lively discussion.

The 'Provocations'

NAPLAN, Acronym
The annual assessment program that strikes fear into the hearts of many. But is the NAPLAN friend or foe to the teachers and students who encounter it each May? This provocation will bait, niggle and vex you with what's really at stake in this high-stakes testing regime. Presented by Dr Damon Thomas

Is Numeracy Enough?
At a time when there is widespread concern about numeracy standards and calls for changes to this, that, and the other in order to lift those standards, there has not been a close examination of what numeracy is, and whether numeracy is all that we want. The frequent cries of "If only they knew their times tables" may well reflect a legitimate desire, but also suggests a naiveté about the nature of numeracy and, taken to an extreme, would lead to an impoverished education. Are we doing our students a disservice by not thinking more carefully about the mathematical learning we want occurring in our classrooms? Presented by Associate Professor Helen Chick

Cultural Literacy and the Late-Modern Self
It is a truth universally acknowledged that functional literacy is vitally important. Yet other truths about the broader social, ideological and imaginative role of literacy often go unrecognised in media-driven discussions of literacy testing and generating statistics. Many of the benefits experienced by literate and linguistically engaged individuals are much harder to measure but are just as vital, such as engaging culturally and critically with an immeasurably complex society. This presentation will discuss the imperative of cultivating cultural literacies in twenty-first century classrooms. Presented by Dr Joanne Jones InvitationPhoto